A German littérateur and critic, born at Ratisbon; a man of versatile powers and vast attainments; settled in Paris and became acquainted with Rousseau and the leading Encyclopédists and Madame d'Epinay; on the breaking out of the Revolution he retired to the court of Gotha and afterwards to that of Catharine II. of Russia, who made him her minister at Hamburg; his correspondence is full of interest, and abounds in piquant literary criticism (1723-1807).